


Shattered Courage

by elena_stidham



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, F/M, Guilt, Mutual Pining, Original Fiction, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partners to Lovers, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Slow Burn, Survival, Team Dynamics, a fic in which the cycle is broken and altered around, and Zelda makes a legend of herself, by herself
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:40:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15667137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elena_stidham/pseuds/elena_stidham
Summary: The process of reincarnation is repetitive. Flowing. Consuming. There has never been a time within the endless cycle of Hyrule's agony where the goddesses had made a mistake with courage's fate.Except, there's this one.▲◭





	1. The Fallen Hero

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS FOR: Violence  
> SONGS USED TO GET IN THE MOOD: I’m working on a playlist for this fic! I’ve been listening to that for the moment while I’m developing it. It’s here if you want to listen (be warned, plenty of changes are coming! So unless you don’t mind it evolving, here you are): https://open.spotify.com/user/twijill/playlist/33ePVuep0TDgKbxHKZJf9u?si=KkWP0jq0S2yaPtUQzFgrzw  
> Hello! Welcome to the most ambitious fanfic I’ve ever tackled in my life (and this is coming from someone that has tackled a lot of ambitious writing projects in her 15+ years of writing), and my creative boosts are directed directly towards my favourite video game franchise: The Legend of Zelda. This, I had in mind, was kind of a prequel to Breath of the Wild as well as a sequel to Majora’s Mask, but it’s definitely a stand-alone story. It just has aspects that directly correlate with these games, which normally doesn’t happen in Zelda lore. So my idea came for this while I was playing Majora’s Mask again, while daydreaming about playing Breath of the Wild (my Switch is packed for the summer *sob*) and overheard my sisters watching Stranger Things when the song “Levitation” started playing. Specifically, that one part at like 1:32 or so. One particular scene clicked in my head, and the rest just flooded from there and I thought I have to write this! So alas, here I am. As this chapter is being put out, I’m still fleshing out the story, but I needed to get started so it’ll be easier for me to expand this new universe. Anyways, if you have questions and suggestions, I read and adore comments, but I most likely respond on Tumblr. My Zelda fic tumblr is minuetofthewild and my personal tumblr is elenastidham. Thank you so much for reading this whole new experience for me and I hope you enjoy the first chapter!  
> -Elena

▲  
▲ ▲  
  
_This_   _is_   _but_   _one_   _of_   _the_   _legends_   _of_   _which_   _people_   _speak_.

 

_Long ago, there lied a kingdom which contained the ancient gold of the three goddesses. It was a land of many treasures, peoples, landscapes, and peace. It was a blessed land of sacred secrets and unfathomable power.  
_

_However, one dark and fateful day, a powerful man of evil stole the goddesses’ power for himself. With the magic under his influence, darkness and despair spread across the land. All hope was lost, and just when the hour of final doom deemed to chime…_

_...a boy in green arrived from no other elsewhere. With the sword that seals the darkness, he had sealed away the evil that plagued the kingdom and once again restored light to shine across Hyrule once again._

_This boy had travelled all across the land and even through time itself to save the kingdom, embarking on an epic tale that would be passed down as a legend for generations. The Hero of Time’s legacy had forever remained since that point. But then, a day had came when the darkness started to rise once again. The horrendous evil that had been sealed away had started to trickle in from the darkest shadows of the land, ready for the day when it will come to power._

_But this time, the Hero of Time did not arrive._

_Despite the hopes and prayers of the civilians within, their hero would not appear. In their darkest hour of need, their only hope to survive was to leave the future to their children, and their children’s children, who might one day contain the hands of fate._

_The elders would wish for the day when their youth would contain the courage like the legendary hero, but what came, no one knew. No one would have suspected._

 

 

**– The Legend of Zelda: Shattered Courage –**

 

 

Eclipses. The sound of thunder.

“Princess!”

The sound of a voice.

_“Princess!”_

The princess opens her eyes, struggling to push herself up in her bed. She makes a face. An empty sky.

She manages to stand just as her door flies open, the General’s face teetering between rush and controlled panic. She stares at him oddly, slipping into some flat shoes. “General,” she says, “What’s going on?”

“There’s been an attack on the west gate,” he heaves, frantically gesturing for her to grab her bow and flee with him. “Your father has instructed that I take you and leave at once.”

She doesn’t hesitate. The sound of thunder is a little more present. A little more clear.

She finds herself practically tripping down the spiral staircase to follow him, rushing out the back door into a horse stable she’s visited thousands of times in her life. The General helps her climb on, following suit in time to crack the leather reigns and start moving. The sound of thunder breaks and collides once again, and her head snaps towards the direction of the west, while the horse begins its gallop toward the east. There’s smoke.

Fire.

“Is it the great evil?” she asks, loud enough to be heard.

The General shakes his head. “I haven’t been informed – I was just told to take you to safety.”

She stares behind her, looking past the General, who, after a moment, gently nudges her to look away. “The King demanded to put you in hiding. A village, he said. Somewhere by the mines.”

“Will my father be alright?”

He thinks, but still speaks no answer.

She notices the stares as they arrive about a half hour later into the community. She looks around, eyes exploring the landscape until they come to a stop. The village’s name is Hekana, she learns. It’s unclear whether or not it would even qualify for a village because of how scarce and far it seemed humans were – then again, she scarcely left the castle grounds, one of her only real exposures to a village before now was Kakariko, and that was just beyond Castle Town. 

The General stepped off, loudly knocking on a door and waiting for an answer. He knocks again, the door still not opening at all.

“Perhaps they’re still asleep?” She says.

Just as the General is about to step around to the other side of the house to wake the person inside, a young boy makes his way around to the front, taking off some gloves and wiping his hands as he knocks on the door with the back of his hand to get the soldier’s attention. The General turns, seeing this boy, then hands him a piece of paper.

“Are you the knight King Rhoam wrote about in this letter?” The General asks. 

The boy’s eyes skim over the parchment for a moment, before looking back up at him and nodding twice. There’s confusion for a moment, and his line of sight follows the General as he walks back to the horse and help the princess step down. They make brief eye contact, then it finally registers in the boy’s head about who he’s looking at.

Instantly, the boy drops to a knee, bowing his head.

She shakes her head and waves softly with one hand. “It is unnecessary.”

The farm boy pauses for a moment, before he slowly rises to stand up straight and maintain proper posture around her. She goes to interject again, but the General speaks over her. “The castle is currently under attack. You’ve been assigned to keep Princess Zelda in hiding until a letter arrives telling you to escort her back. Her life comes before your own.”

He nods obediently, the silence even in his eyes were intriguing. Zelda can’t help but stare, just for a moment. “This is Link,” the General tells her, getting back onto his horse so that he will return to the battle. “You are to wait here with him. He’s under strict orders to keep you safe.”

“What if no letter arrives?” She asks.

“Then you stay, and you wait,” The General says simply. The silence that reigns is heavy, before he kicks his heels into the horse’s side, riding back to where the battle had just begun. The boy waits, for just a moment, then he turns to open the door for her. She hears a bird over her in the sky.

It was barely seven o’clock in the morning.

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

Link’s house is rather small, but comfy. It’s a nice balance between necessity and unnecessary commodity, enough to have everything they’d need, but still feel like an individual home.

Zelda found herself staring at the tiniest of trinkets that clearly came from moments past, her eyes wandering around the shelves to see what she could find about the living mystery that is Link. She doesn’t hear him speak, nor does she hear him carefully walk up behind her to present a book.

She jumps, gasping slightly as he remains unphased, his innocent demeanour only amplified when she glances at the hard cover.

“A recipe book?” She asks, intrigued as she takes it. “What do you want me to do with this?”

He waits. Then, it hits her. She hasn’t eaten today. Then, something else hits her.

_Hunger._

“Oh,” she murmurs, flipping through the pages carefully as she tried to figure out what she’d want. She finds a page that showed a simple vegetable omelette and turned the book back to him with that page. “If it’s not too much trouble, please.”

He smiles warmly and nods once, before his body practically sweeps into his earthy kitchen to begin cooking. She watches him, noticing how he beams as he resides in his comfort zone.

Cooking, she notes. That’s a passion.

Zelda sits down cautiously, watching him as he makes food for the both of them. He’s having what she’s having. She glances at the book again and then speaks up, tilting her head slightly to the side. “What’s your favourite?” she asks him.

Link pauses for a moment, thinking with his eyes trailing up in the air. The smell that emits from the pan is slowly evolving into something incredible. He takes a deep breath and walks to the book to start to flip through it, reminding himself of all that he’s made. He pauses on a particular page, thinking about it for a moment, before he nods and turns it back to her.

_Apple pie._

She smiles, breathing out a one-exhale-chuckle. She never expects much out of the knights, knowing that their sole purpose in the kingdom was to protect it, but there was something about this one that’s so stand-offish, so different. So _familiar._

Zelda looks up from the book, and he’s already turned back to finish making their food.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” She asks. He doesn’t budge, now adding to his overall mystery. He turns to her, placing the plate in front of her with his finest silverware for her to eat, and he begins to clean up the mess he made before he would sit and join her. He avoids the question, and just turns to the food.

After her first bite, they stop; Zelda notices how Link quietly stares to gauge her reaction as she swallows. “It’s delicious,” she says, noticing the slight blush on his cheeks when he turns back to finish his cleaning. He finally sits across from her with his own plate, his attitude now a little more bouncy in nature. She waits for a moment, studying him. He just quietly starts to eat, before she continues her next compliment. “You know, you’d probably make a better royal chef than a royal knight.”

The blush darkened into a deep shade of red and cottoned pink. He brings a hand up to hide his cheeky smile, avoiding her gaze as he turns his attention to the open window, the morning light attempting to distract him from the fact that a pretty princess just complimented his cooking ability.

For someone that looks justified in his power and ability, he’s completely, undeniably adorable.

She thinks for a moment, before tilting her head slightly with her question. “Why did you choose to be a knight?” She asks. “You look about my age. It’s not easy for someone to make it into the royal guard before they’re seventeen.”

Link’s eyes harden just slightly. There’s no malice behind them, but there was no comfort, either. Just as she feels that she’s overstepped her boundaries and already overstayed her welcome, he just sighs softly and shrugs. He speaks no answer.

When they finish, Link carefully reaches forward and takes her plate to was them in the basin sink, his eyes never faltering. He sets the plates to dry on a cloth, and just leans against the counter, standing straight with his arms folded. His head was lowered just slightly, so that way he wasn’t making eye contact with the princess but he could still see her in the corner of his vision.

She’s nosy.

“What were you doing behind the house?” Zelda asks, tapping her fingers on the wooden table and trying to break the silence. Link pushes himself off the counter and walks to the door that leads to the back of the house, cracking it open so that way she can see outside. There’s a pretty little garden lining the back walls, mostly flowers and herbs, but she does notice an apple tree blooming right behind them all.

She leans back in her seat, watching the knight close the door in front of him. A part of her wants to say that he definitely can’t talk, but a part of her knows otherwise. Somehow.

“Alright then,” she breathes out, rising to a stand. He raises his eyebrows, indicating that he’s listening to her and that she has his attention. She gestures around. “Where will I be staying?”

He nods without a second thought, leading the way for her up some stairs and around the loft. It’s undoubtedly his bedroom, and he shakes his head the moment she turns to him to reject it.

“For goodness sake,” Zelda declines. “I can’t take your bed.”

Link shakes his head again and points inside with his whole arm. When she doesn’t move, he slowly reaches over and takes her hands, pulling her into the room with a reassuring smile. It doesn’t feel right to her, but it seems that he’s more than perfectly fine. With a sigh, she finally accepts, much to her distaste. “Where will you sleep, then?”

He shrugs, nonchalantly gesturing to the wooden floor surrounding her. She doesn’t understand him, despite his good nature. She doesn’t understand that, despite him never saying a word, his whole aura radiates courage and powerful energy. She doesn't quite understand how, despite having been gentle and well-intended during the whole hour she’s visited there, that there was fire in his eyes.

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

By the dawn of the second day, she’s learned nothing.

Most of her facts about this knight are trivial: he sometimes – very rarely – makes vague gestures and movements with his hands to convey something he cannot normally express (rain is a perfect example of this), speaking of which she has used this gestures to express that he prefers the rain to the sun.

 _It helps me sleep,_ his hands had conveyed.

He has trouble sleeping?

Zelda stays up on the night of the second day, allowing herself to lay down and watch the knight toss and turn around on the floor until he finally sighs and sits up. Dragging a hand across the back of his neck, he pushes himself to a stand, his footsteps so lightweight they carry no sound at all, and he walks out. She waits for just a short while, before she too, quietly sneaks out to see where he’s gone.

The door out back is opened some, a soft amber light emitting from the windows as she slowly peeks through the crack. He’s not there, but there’s a fire and to her right, a figure. She turns there. Taking her time, she rounds this corner and finds Link, slowly and carefully, breathing deeply as he holds his sword. He swings one more time. It looks like he’s training.

Zelda watches, briefly, before announcing her presence. “Can you not sleep?”

It startles him.

The next thing he finds is the tip of the sword merely inches from her throat, trembling in his grasp as they’re _both_ breathing heavy now. She’s wide-eyed, staring in his. He’s hardly there. It takes him a moment, and after a short while (the longest feeling of while, albeit), it finally registers to Link of what he’s doing.

His inhale sounds something just shy of a shaking gasp, and he instantly pulls the sword back and drops it, falling down to a knee and bowing his head to show apology, his elbow nearly slipping off his knee. Her breathing is almost as heavy as his.

She shakes her head. “It’s unnecessary.”

He doesn’t look up.

“I snuck up on you. It’s alright.”

He clenches a fist.

“Please,” Zelda speaks. “Look at me.”

When he does, she sees Link behind his eyes again. She isn’t sure what had lost him in the first place, if he was even lost at all, but she can tell that there’s something else that catches a faint glint in the firelight. It doesn’t look right. Is it that he’s afraid?

The princess extends her hands, and the knight takes them, rising to a stand.

“Come now,” she demands, gesturing towards the doorway. “You need rest.” She almost wants to tell him that he can’t protect her if he’s tired as some kind of incentive, but she decides otherwise. Link just nods, dousing out the fire before his boots are stepping on wood instead of soft ground.

They don’t talk about it during breakfast the next morning. He made her small fruitcakes.

It’s not until afternoon on the third day when she brings it up, not anticipating any answer from him. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” she asks. He doesn’t nod, nor does he shake his head. She turns to him. “Do you mind telling me why you can’t sleep sometimes?”

He shrugs.

“Do you have nightmares?”

He wobbles his hand, as if he was balancing something on the back of his palm.

Zelda doesn’t push further than that, picking up on the fact that he’s not telling her much for a reason, and she decides to change the subject altogether. Because of this, she finds out that he taught himself how to read.

By the fourth day she’s finally asking him if he’s actually able to talk. He just laughs, softly, more like a breathy chuckle than nothing else. It doesn’t answer her question, and it clouds him with even more mystery.

On morning five she’s attempting to cook with him, but he’s feverishly insisting that she sits, handing her a few cookbooks to choose from and she just pushes them all to the side. “I want to help you,” she tells him. “I want to do more here than just have you constantly take care of me.”

He shakes his head and does this thing with his hands again. He’s saying that he wants to—no, he _likes_ to take care of her. His hands are telling her that it’s nice to do this, and he doesn’t mind one bit at all.

Zelda huffs out a breath, but lets him be.

On night five, he’s definitely having a nightmare. She doesn’t know what it’s about, but very faintly, she can almost hear him whisper something. Some kind of a name, like it’s a warning, or perhaps, a call to war.

She doesn’t realise that by the end of night five, no war has yet begun.

Link doesn’t tell her what he was dreaming of when she wakes him up, as if she wouldn’t understand one bit. He can’t even convey it with his hands. She will soon learn that these aren’t even nightmares at all, but instead something else entirely – they just happen to haunt him in his mind, only when he tries to turn it off.

The sixth morning she revisits an old question. “Why are you a knight?” She asks. “The people around here tell me that you are, in fact, seventeen.” She puts down her silverware and just rests her head in her hand. “Nobody here knows a thing about you, Link. But they say you’re strong. Very strong. Yet, you look so troubled every time you carry a sword.”

His eyes do not look up from his plate.

“Did something happen? Is that why you’re so far out here?” Zelda asks.

Link’s eyes trail down to the back of his hand, and he says nothing at all. He waits for just a few more moments, before he finally raises his hands. He hesitates, looking at a particular spot down on the table before his hands move on their own – rigid, awkward, and almost entirely out of place, yet it fit.

_No choice._

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

By the dawn of the final day, she’s stayed for a little over a week, now, and in that time she’s grown fond of the quietest way of life. She’s met the miners and the women who work the market streets, she’s seen the dust hobble off as the village’s people all pitch in together to make a new home for a newlywed couple staying at their only inn. She’s used to streets huddled with music, but never has she heard cobblestones only echo back white noise.

Still, Link has not spoken a thing.

When the letter arrived, Zelda noticed that it was a few days late. The postman, despite his best efforts, did not send the priority on time. She didn’t mind – the cosy lifestyle was growing on her faster than she anticipated. It almost saddened her when she read that it was time for her to leave.

She walks inside, handing the letter to Link as he sets their food down to eat for that morning. She doesn’t say anything this time, but Link nods, unfaltering as he gestures for her to join him in one last meal together. She does.

She notices that he’s a little slower when he eats this morning.

“You know,” Zelda thinks out loud, sparking the boy’s attention. “Staying here’s been lovely. If you wouldn’t mind, I would love to come back when I have spare time.”

Link smiles warmly, a faint blush in his cheeks again as he nods. It isn’t said, but it’s clear that he would like that very much.

When they leave, Zelda is in the same outfit she came in. They ride on a horse Link had rented from the stable – Epona, was her name – and Link had packed a sword and shield on his body. He also has her wear her bow across her back with some extra arrows in her quiver. Just in case.

Zelda glances back, staring at Hekana Village one last time before facing forward, watching as the silhouette of a castle starting to pierce its way into the sky. From what she can see the fires by the west gate had been extinguished, the castle undamaged. Just as the letter had said, the threat was disbanded.

“I’ll make sure my father rewards you kindly for this,” Zelda speaks quietly as the trees pass her by. She can almost feel Link behind her wanting to shake his head as if it would be unnecessary. “I know you probably feel that it’s undeserved, but please stay long enough to receive it.”

Link breathes, almost sounding like a tiny chuckle. She somehow knows that he doesn’t plan to.

As they arrive at the castle walls, Link dismounts first, quickly turning to help the princess just fine as she steps off the horse next. The east gate opens for them, and they step forward to make their way inside—

—then there is a sound of thunder.

However, this time, the north end of the castle starts to collapse. Link quickly turns to have Zelda climb onto Epona once again, but he notices a swarm of monsters making their way up the hilltop. His eyes quickly scan around where they stand, before deciding to take Epona by the reigns and have them both ride inside. He’s going to find an alternate way out – through the castle tunnels.  

Zelda, by now, is panicking. Her breathing is heavy and uneven while her eyes are wide around her in shock, not even feeling the weight of herself slamming back onto the horse as it gallops around the circular streets towards the castle doors.

Link stops once they make it just outside the castle doors, quickly hopping down so that he can open the gate into the courtyard. He unlocks the small wooden door, hurriedly having her follow suit.

However, the moment she steps inside, her hand starts glowing. Bright, golden – beautiful. There’s a slight burn as she gasps down at it, noticing the outline of her triforce radiant across her skin. She turns to her knight to say something, but she sees him, too, staring down at his own mark on his hand. She remembers that’s where he stared one breakfast, for a particularly long time. She realises something starts to make sense.

“Link,” she breathes sharply. “That’s—”

“— _Mine_.”

They both raise their heads, suddenly noticing the tall, unmistakable figure walking before them. This is it. This is _him._ The great evil. The third of them that Hyrule tried and so desperately failed to keep away.

She realises now, the attack on the west gate was much further planned along than she thought.

Without a second thought, Link shoves Zelda back, unsheathing his sword and instantly guarding in front of her to face him. Ganondorf laughs, powerful and mighty, as he takes a few steps backward in mockery. “Aw, look at you,” he seethes. “How very—” He reaches forward, using his power within the triforce to push the knight backward, taking him by surprise to make him fly backwards onto the ground with a loud cry. Zelda screams. “—Touching,” he finishes.

He walks over to the boy, his dark shadow casting a deep gloom over his body. “I had suspected that the royal family already knew who had the Triforce of Courage, but I didn’t suspect him to be this close.”

Link rises to a stand, waiting for a moment before he runs towards the Gerudo King, much to his disappointment. He raises a hand, stopping him in his tracks, and despite his best efforts to move, the most he is moving is the slight jerking in place. “I’m going to make this easy on you,” he says simply, almost bored. He reaches a hand over. Suddenly, and very painfully, the triforce starts to peel itself out of Link’s hand.

He screams, and just as the piece emerges into the sky, it drops to the ground below just as quickly when a sudden arrow pierces the king’s shoulder. He barely even winces. He turns around, seeing the princess with a trembling bow in her hands. “The brave little princess coming to the rescue now, isn’t that sweet?” He raises a hand to her, her body freezing the same way Link had moments before. Her hand starts to tingle, then seconds after, it starts to _burn._

She cries out, trying to fight against the restrictions when suddenly she’s freed. Link shouts, bringing his sword down on Ganondorf as hard as he can until it’s deflected with another blade. What none of the three expect is for Link’s blade to completely shatter. With a simple tsk, he looks back to the knight, now annoyed. “You know, boy, I’m really getting tired of you fighting my every move.”

Link’s eyes are narrowed, and they don’t falter just because the Gerudo raises his hand again. Except, this time, he moves too fast for Link to move.

The next thing he knows he’s on the ground, his eyes suddenly shrouded with darkness from a wooden mask being pressed against his face. He feels himself slipping, his voice distorting, and with a final cry, he doesn’t feel himself anymore.

Zelda watches with wide eyes, her inner conflict was a mess between fear, confusion, and the intense need to do something. Despite this, her body does not move. Her feet seem to have melted and then moulded in place, holding her firmly on the ground as she watches with complete shock and distress. In a cloud of purple and screams, her knight is gone. Link isn’t himself anymore now – he’s someone…different, if it makes any sense at all. The hero was now shrouded in white, his armour carrying the crest of a moon on his chest and a massive sword wielded behind his shoulders. His eyes were now bleached out in pure white, markings of red are inscribed on the underside of each eye.

“Make it quick,” Ganondorf says simply, before leaving the two in the courtyard.

Zelda stares at him, suddenly aware how very little she’s armed. “Link?” she asks.

The man shakes his head and starts his way toward her, slowly, but something about him was much more intimidating than the alleged great evil. It might be in his voice – deep, dark, and beyond unsettling. “You may just call me God.”

The deity outstretches a hand to her, palm open, the outline of her triforce starts to glow only slightly. She steps backwards, holding her hand. “You aren’t taking this from me,” she seethes. “What did you do to Link?”

“ _I_ haven’t done a thing.” He notices the Triforce of Courage that was ripped from him just moments before still lying on the ground, and he reaches to grab it, before an arrow suddenly throws it back. He turns to her, now glaring. “Come on, Princess.” She feels something echo from within her and tries to step forward, but he takes his sword and with a simple swipe in the air, a beam flies across out of it, knocking the girl back against the gate to her hands and knees, a burn ripping across her arms that suddenly guarded her chest. She falls with a loud cry.

“Don’t make me angry,” he says, coolly. “There’s a reason why I’m referred to as the _fierce_ deity. You seem very intelligent, so don’t make me hurt you for a rash decision.”

“Give him back,” she says, cold, her fingers slipping as she reaches for her fallen bow.

He sighs, turning towards where the triforce again, and the echo burns louder. However, what she didn’t expect was for the princess to have a power of her own.

“I said _give him back!”_

She reaches her hand forward, and, with a swift, powerful and golden beam, the triforce flies to her, but stops halfway. Just past the triforce, the Fierce Deity stands, angry now, as his arm is outstretched and using what power he has to try and take the Triforce of Courage back. Using all the power they can, they desperately try to pull the triforce to them, but it moves in neither way, just starting to wobble in the middle of the sky. Her body _burns_ now, her body suddenly aware of the hot blood coursing through her veins and she _screams._

She holds still, and it starts to take the wind from her lungs, further setting fire to her veins. She can’t tell if she’s winning this game of tug-of-war without any rope, she can’t tell if the triforce is moving at all. All she can see is bright, golden light emitting from her palm, pulling with all her might to bring that piece to her. The air smells of ash and singed skin.

Zelda doesn’t notice how, despite the growing redness in the sky, the triforce fragment started breaking. It’s a simple crack, with bright, light beams piercing from the breaks and remnants, before it just bursts – with a loud, almost supersonic, shrieking cry, the triforce shatters down the centre, the shockwave sending the two flying in opposite directions.

For a moment, there’s only a deafening ringing in Zelda’s ears, her vision blurring as she’s unable to formulate what just happened in her mind. She struggles to roll over, groaning softly. She glances up, struggling to push herself to her hands and knees, much less to a stand. She sees a golden fragment just inches from her eyes and frantically reaches for it, the moment it touches her hand she feels it seep into her skin.

It burns, too, but she doesn’t have the energy to hiss.

There comes a rush of emotions there, but she couldn’t pinpoint on what in particular. But one thing’s for sure: she’s burning all over, and she’s _heavy._ It’s like the whole world suddenly rests on her shoulders and she feels a struggle even more so now to make her body move in any direction. She pushes herself to lift her head, noticing the Fierce Deity struggling to stand in the same way. She takes this as her chance to quickly flee, before he realises that she had taken the triforce. She wobbles to a stand, the entire world spinning around her, struggling to carry her bow as she leans along the gate walls to push them open, almost falling when the door sweeps open on the other side.

“Epona,” she breathes out, thankfully, heaving to climb onto the horse, practically laying on her when she makes it topside. She pats her mane twice. “Good girl, good Epona,” she exhales. She takes the reigns, then quickly snaps, the beast beginning its gallop away. However, the burning outline on her hand begins to glow again, and when she looks down she sees her triforce, but only one half of the Triforce of Courage.

A voice tells her to look up, and when she does, the last thing she sees is the Fierce Deity, narrow eyes glaring through her soul, holding up his glowing hand to show that he has the other half. She stares, she stares at the monster that took her knight, she stares at how his hand beams only one half of a shared golden light, she stares into his eyes and she sees that he carries no life.

Zelda stares behind her until he’s no longer in her sight.


	2. One and a Half

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO WARNINGS THIS CHAPTER!  
> SONGS USED TO GET IN THE MOOD: The Sounds of Hyrule from Breath of the Wild on YouTube, as well as the playlist I’m working on this fic. The link is here (but be warned it is still in MASSIVE development, so expect it to constantly change until the end of the fic! I typically have the playlist finalised a chapter or two before the end, so if you’re willing to watch it change, here): https://open.spotify.com/user/twijill/playlist/33ePVuep0TDgKbxHKZJf9u?si=MlQzimyiS9KbfIgi8w613A  
> No warnings! That’s a first. Even though I know it’s going to be rated M for later chapters it’s still a nice surprise. My Zelda fic tumblr is minuetofthewild and my personal tumblr is elenastidham. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!  
> -Elena

By the time Epona starts to slow down, Zelda doesn’t know where she is. She’s somewhere amongst the fog, the fireflies glowing bright around the branches that surround her. The sound of crickets. Running water.

Her breathing is muggy and hot, her body overheating from the burning beneath the bones on her hand, and the moment she practically collapses off Epona she’s submerging herself underwater. It’s not cold by any means, but it’s much cooler against her skin than what she was feeling before. She takes a deep breath when her head breaks over the water, pushing herself against the ground to keep herself afloat. Deep breaths, Zelda.

She remembers what happened just a few hours before, the sky no longer a deep red, but now a perfectly blended shade between violet and blue. She looks at the stars, and when she finally comes to the realisation of what exactly happened, a sob rips past her throat.

This boy who barely knew her had protected her, fought for her, willing to die for her, and because of her, he was never going to be seen again.

She raises her wrist to her mouth, hiding the bottom half of her face behind her arm, her tears adding to the wetness on her face. “I’m sorry,” she cries, keeping her voice down, almost like Epona would be the only one to hear her agony. “You should have never been involved. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Instantly, Zelda practically leaps from the water, her head frantically scanning around her. It’s a voice she doesn’t recognise – it’s similar to the Fierce Deity’s, but a little more full of light. It sounded like he was talking to himself more than he was talking to her. “Who said that?” She calls, reaching for her bow and drawing it, continuing to glance around, now armed. The river water trickles down her head and irritates her eyes, but she’s almost too on edge to blink in this moment.

The voice speaks again, this time with a rise at the end of his tone, almost like he’s shocked. Confused. “You heard that?”

This time, Zelda pinpoints where the sound comes from, quickly turning behind her with her bow aimed and ready to fire—

—and she stiffens.

Once again, she finds herself staring eye-to-eye with the very boy behind her tears. Her breath is stuck in her lungs, air unable to pass or even hold as he carries that same look of shock. It’s almost as if he didn’t expect to be seen or heard at all.

“Link?” Zelda gasps softly, more along the lines of a breathy cry. She lowers her bow slightly, keeping aim and a hold on the arrow in case of needing to fire elsewhere in an instant.

He opens his mouth to speak, but no words are able to come out.

She can vaguely see through him, almost as if he’s not even completely there – a type of translucent that’s a lot more solid than invisible, but still misty enough to make her suspect that it’s not his true form. She steps forward, then her fingers slip; and the arrow shoots, flying past her initial target and instead piercing straight through his gut. However, there was no injury to obtain from it, as it had, quite literally, pierced _through_ him.

Link looks behind him for a moment, then turns back to her. His face conveys how much he wants to speak, but he’s at a complete loss for words. He waits, watching her not break away from their eye contact as she shoots out of the water in reaction. However, when she sees that her knight remains unharmed, his name remains frozen behind her throat. She steps towards him, carefully reaching out, then she hesitates, almost afraid to touch him, but her fingers slip past through him.

“Link?” She breathes out again, a little shakier with even more disbelief.

“You can see me?” He finally replies.

It takes a moment for her to register what’s happening, what he’s saying – he’s _saying_ —

“—You…you can talk?” Zelda stares, no witty comment or backhanded tease is appropriate, making her unable to hide the blatant confusion in her eyes.  

With a faint, almost uncomfortable chuckle, he just nods. “Only sometimes.”

They can’t touch. They can’t even feel – but they can see. They can speak. And when they come to this conclusion at the same time, they realise next that this is all they need.

“How are you here?” She asks, still trying to wrap her head around what – or _who_ – she’s viewing.

Link thinks for a moment, before just shrugging. “I…I don’t know.”

Zelda looks at her hand, her eyes narrowing in frustration when she thinks about it a little too deep. “I don’t understand,” she thinks out loud. “It _broke_. How could it even break?”

“Your powers, I think,” Link says, staring at her hand as he tries to recall what he can. It’s fuzzy, and red, but he remembers the distinct smell and taste of smoke when the Triforce of Courage shattered and sent them both flying off on opposite sides. He remembers how they each held it in the air, a steady grip and the sheer force alone caused a crack and a split directly down the middle. “And mine too. I didn’t even know we had any.”

“Me neither.” She looks at him. “I’ve never used it before.”

He makes a face, unsure of how he’s supposed to take that news, but in her defence, he had never used his either, or at least he thinks he hadn’t. “Can you use it again?” he asks.

Zelda shrugs, her eyes wandering around before settling on a rock among a patch of grass. She brings her hand up, trying to use her powers there, but nothing seems to happen. She even tries to rethink her same thought process as the last time, but to no avail. After one more trial, she shakes her head, lowering her hand. “It seems I can’t.”

Link doesn’t seem to understand. Just several hours ago she was pulling against him with all her might and she was glowing in _gold._ However, he realises that it seems like it’s better fit for a right place and right time scenario. This was neither.

She sighs and looks down at the grass before turning back to the spirit of her knight. “I’m sorry,” she says to him, softly. “I tried to stop him, I tried to save you, but—”

He shakes his head. “It’s not in your best interest to take the blame.”

“But you’re…” Zelda doesn’t know how to finish her sentence, the countless words or phrases that all fit into place don’t seem to fit quite right like she thinks it should be. “I don’t know what to do.”

Link thinks for a moment, before just tossing an idea out into the air, not expecting really much out of it. “There’s a woman that lives in Hekana,” he explains. “She’s basically our crazy village lady, but she swears up and down that she’s psychic and can see into the past and the future.”

“So, you’re saying she may have an idea of what to do?”

“I was thinking more like she’d be the type to know _who_ we can go to for help, but we can ask that too if you want,” Link says.

Zelda takes a deep breath, then nods, realising that she really has no other option at this point and so any idea works as a good one. She climbs up onto Epona, who patiently waited by the water, drinking from it from time to time. She’s gentle with her, slowly using the reigns to guide her towards the direction of Hekana Village and then pausing when she realises that Link can’t touch anything. He can’t join her. She turns back to him to ask him how he will join her, but he’s already gone.

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

Hekana isn’t the furthest away, but Zelda notes that by the time she arrives, it’s nearly evening. She hears murmuring when Epona trots in without Link joining her – and with the few words she was able to pick up a basic idea of what the new rumours are going to be about.

_“Did you see the sky, by the castle?”_

_“What’s the Princess doing here?”_

_“Where’s Link?”_

She stops outside of Link’s house, the overall presence suddenly weighing down on a lump in her throat. She swallows hard, then continues onward with a deep breath. She brings Epona to a post outside the front, carefully tying her reigns around to keep her there until she comes back. The house is empty now, and this alone feels like an ever-more-present reminder of her failures – a type of hollow she can’t otherwise redefine.

A gust of wind through her hair is what brings her back. Zelda turns, feeding the horse a carrot with a soft pet across her mane before she glances around, looking for any indicator of where she needs to go. Stones. Patches of burnt yellow among the blades of grass.

“It’s on your left, princess.”

She jumps with a slight gasp, turning behind her and making eye contact again with the very spirit she had spoken to an hour or so before. She inhales sharply now, pouting just slightly before she sighs. “How did you even get here?”

Link thinks for a moment, then he shrugs. He points to her hand again with another shrug, if he had to guess.

At this point, she’s too tired to question it.

“What am I even looking for?” Zelda raises an eyebrow slightly, finishing feeding the carrot to Epona but continuing to pet her mane.

“Fanadi’s got a huge display outside her little hut. She’s very much the eccentric type,” he gestures large. “You can’t miss it.”

Zelda feels eyes on her, and she turns, noticing some children whispering, with not-so-subtle gesturing to her and very obviously looking in her direction. They can’t see Link, she realises. She must look _insane._

She turns back to Link and, for a moment, they make eye contact, then glance away. She purses her lips together. Thankfully, the two of them come to the same conclusion at the same time: it’s probably best to keep the communication down to a minimum while in public.

Zelda starts left.

Then suddenly, she knows _exactly_ what Link was talking about.

Right outside, fuchsia smoke clouds the house and wraps itself around the overall frame, the wisps curling up into the sky like fingers beckoning to draw her near. Clear, jagged crystals pierce up from the ground around the cobblestone path to the front door, catching faint glistening from the light. The house itself, according to Link, is a few years new, but it looks like it’s at least a thousand years old from the erosion. There is a clear lack of substantial income from the locals around here, but somehow the exterior alone gives off a wealthy kind of demeanour, as if the furniture inside were made of gold.

As for Fanadi herself, the second Zelda opens the door she immediately realises that this woman is either extremely powerful or _nuts._ Fanadi, however, is that beautifully blended mixture of both _._

The first thing that one would notice about her is the Eye of the Shiekah etched around her right eye, the centre portion of the symbol only visible when she blinks – on her eyelid. Her dress carries the illusion of a thousand layers, but only containing plainly one. She’s a scrawny, skin and bones type of woman, as if the one thing she eats are remnants of a skeleton itself. A deep, purple smoke seeps from the bottom hem of her dress, flowing outwards instead of upwards this time. She looks like she’s floating.

“I knew you’d come, Princess Zelda,” she says, almost like a moan. She glances behind her and snaps her head into a faint tilt. “And you’ve brought your friend.”

Zelda’s eyes instantly dart behind her, noticing that there was no physical human being present. Link’s expression is unreadable, but there’s a faint hint of intrigue in his eyes. She turns back to Fanadi. “You can see him?”

Fanadi grins. “I see all things, dear.” She starts to step backwards and curls her fingers in a particular way, gesturing her to follow deeper inside the house – which, was definitely much bigger than it looked on the outside. “Including your Time.”

“My time?” Zelda asks, following her to what looks to be the main portion of the house. A red drink is brewing on its own along the wall, and the walls themselves were lined with tapestries and other draping curtains. They sit on the carpet across the floor, a crystal ball tucked in a corner behind the fortune teller. A small table is what divides them, and even while sitting it only comes up to her waist.

“Yes, your _Time,”_ Fanadi reiterates, practically wailing, as if it makes sense. She takes the princess’s hand, bringing up to where Zelda can see the golden edges of a triforce and a half behind her palm. She hadn’t even glanced in that direction since she’s been inside, but still she somehow knows exactly what it holds. “All forms of it, and how they end.”

She’s confused, but she still asks anyway. “So, you can tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

“Yes, but I won’t.”

Zelda instantly snaps into an offended look. “Why not?”

Fanadi leans forward across the table. “It’s dangerous,” her voice rings. She tilts her head in Link’s direction behind the princess, as if to tell her to look there. “He would know about that.” She looks up at him now, direct eye contact included. “Wouldn’t you, boy?”

Link shifts in place, now visibly uncomfortable.

Her grin in response is almost sinister. She turns back to Zelda, now giving the princess her attention. “So, no, Your Highness, I will not allow you to tamper with Time, not even a glimpse of it.”

Zelda purses her lips together, refraining from a pout, but still noticeably unhappy with her outcome. “Then how in goddess’s name am I supposed to know what to do?” There’s an internal debate in her head within the timespan of a few seconds, before she blurts out her next words – an insult that Fanadi already knew was coming. “Since you’re useless with your craft, after all.”

Fanadi laughs. The insult didn’t hit her one bit. “I’ll tell you what, princess, I’m sure an old friend of yours in Kakariko Village would be more willing to tell you an answer you might be looking for.”

“I’m sorry, what—”

Fanadi doesn’t let her finish. Instead, she brings her hand up with the thumb pressed to the middle finger. “Elihw a sekat gnidoal…tiaw,” she speaks, her voice suddenly ringing with a thousand voices and tones. She snaps her fingers, and Zelda feels an intense pressure against her chest, then what feels like a shove.

The next thing she knows she’s gasping open her eyes on the grass. She scrambles up to her hands and knees, turning back to the house to run back in and give that quack a piece of her mind – but it’s not there.

Everything, all the way down to the cobblestone walkway and the smoke surrounding, is gone. Zelda, for a moment, questions if the encounter even happened at all; that is until Link finally mumbled something.

“She _wishes_ she can see Time.”

Zelda turns back around to him, quickly scanning around to make sure nobody sees her, then she speaks to him. “What was she on about?”

He shakes his head, rolling his eyes in the process. “It’s nothing,” he says. He continues to speak over her, so the question will remain completely avoided. “Who’s the old friend that she mentioned in Kakariko Village?” For some reason, there’s a faint hint of envy in his tone.

Zelda thinks for a moment, before she shrugs. “The only person that I know of is probably Impa.” She didn’t say it, but she doubts that she’s even still alive. Then again, Shiekah are rumoured to live relatively longer lives in comparison to Hylians.

“Is this the same Impa that was the General until she was forced to retire a few years ago?” Link asks.

She nods.

“And how are we going to find her in Kakariko Village? It’s huge and she could be _anywhere_ —”

“—I know this is something you probably haven’t thought of, but asking around is definitely an option,” Zelda’s tone is less condescending than her words. He glares, but his expression is still overall soft.

There’s a short moment where neither of them says anything. It’s as if thought was tossed into the air, caught in the breeze and taken somewhere far away. The princess sighs softly, closing her eyes against a gust of wind blowing along her face and hair until Link clears his throat to get her attention again. She turns to him and he uses his hands to sway towards the right – back to his house, where Epona still stays.

“I don’t know about you, Princess,” he says, urging her to walk. “But I’m in a rush.”

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

Kakariko Village has grown only slightly since the last time she’s been. It’s still laid out the same, it seems, and it’s still definitely where most of the kingdom’s wealth lives, but Zelda can’t help but feel almost small in comparison. As if she, a princess, does not belong among them.

She knows that if a General makes it to retirement, there’s a centre specifically designated and paid for by the Royal Family to be used by high ranking officials and councilmen that the General could choose to live in. However, something within Zelda gives her the feeling that Impa probably wouldn’t be the type to live in Kakariko Village at all.

In a way, she’s right.

She has to ask someone to find out, learning that she chose to live in the common areas right outside of the Military District – apparently, she wanted to be closer to her son and newborn granddaughter. Zelda didn’t even know that she had kids. She was told a general area, and now that’s where she’s lost.

It’s very clear she hasn’t been here often enough to remember.

“Can’t you tell me where to go?” She asks in a hushed, demanding voice, loud enough only for the spirit to hear.

When Link finally chooses to reply, it’s after he’s finished staring at the gorgeous mural along a brick wall where each stone is perfectly placed. The mural depicts what looks like an old legend that dates back even to the Era of the Hero of Time – and something about it is oddly _familiar_ to them both.

“I’ve never been here,” Link says, softly. “I was never capable.”

Zelda stares at him oddly, wondering how a seventeen-year-old _knight_ couldn’t be capable of visiting Kakariko Village. She wants to ask, but decides that it’s best to leave it alone for now.

A familiar voice comes from behind her, startling, but almost reassuring.

“You’ve grown.”

Zelda snaps behind her with a gasp, taking her a solid few seconds before she realises that the woman in front of her is the very General that retired years ago. Now that she sees Impa, she feels stupid for thinking that the woman may not be alive anymore – she’s still young, relatively, age starting to peek through faint cracks in her face; her white hair is pulled up into a bun with two sticks making an X through the sides. There’s an overall tone of motherhood about her, as if she’s seeing her daughter again after years of no contact and absolute silence.

Ashamed, Zelda barely remembers her.

“Impa,” she thinks, trying to sound as if she had more than a fuzzy memory with her in her mind. She draws out the sentence, and it continues on, but never picks up again.

Impa smiles warmly, carefully placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her towards her house – Zelda notes that she was a lot closer than she thought. She leads her inside, the house small in comparison to the mansions surrounding, but it’s cosy. In a way it puts off some of the same vibes as Link’s house had in Hekana. “So, what brings you here?”

Zelda waits a moment, before she holds up her hand. The outline still has a faint beaming glow of gold under her skin. Impa’s expression suddenly turns serious, and she leans in carefully to examine it. “This has never happened before,” she muses softly.

“You’re telling me,” Link huffs to himself, folding his arms and leaning against the doorframe, waiting on them. Impa can’t see or hear him unlike Fanadi, so he’s forced to watch in unrecognised silence. He glances at his hand, then he notices that he has the whole Triforce of Courage on his hand. It makes him wonder.

Impa stares at her hand for a moment, before she sits back down into her rocking chair entirely, gesturing for the princess to sit across her. She does. The veteran thinks for a moment, recalling to everything she’s read and all the legends she was once told, but nothing, _nothing_ had ever mentioned that the Triforce of Courage would fall into the princess’s hand, and _broken._

“Well,” Impa says in that tone of voice that conveys she’s thinking the best she can. “You need to find the other half.”

“Someone has it already.”

“I see.”

She purses her lips together, her eyebrows scrunching towards the middle and it’s very clear what she thinks is tossed out of her mind as soon as it comes. Nothing’s clicking. Nothing’s making sense – until something _does._

“Well,” Impa ponders on it for a moment, then she nods and locks eyes with Zelda. “Every legend tells that the hero containing that triforce has a sword with the capability of sealing the darkness.”

Zelda already knows where she’s going before the next sentence hits. “You do realise how _impossible_ it is to find that sword, right? It’s been hidden away for thousands of years and most people don’t even believe it’s real anymore, like it’s some urban legend of its own.”

Impa nods. She knows.

The princess leans back with a groan, staring at her hand for a moment before pressing her fingers into the centre, as if it would do anything. “Even if it was real, let’s say,” she says, “it’s been lost with the sole purpose of never being found. No Hylian would know where it is.”

Suddenly, a flash pierces into Zelda’s head, like a daydream coming to life but all within the mind. There’s shades of pink, maybe faint amounts of purple, almost like a blend. Clear crystals line the walls entirely, some jagged edges piercing from the sides. There’s a high, cackling laugh, but it almost sounds like a moan of joy. She feels like she’s in the air, but she can’t catch anything else.

Zelda opens her eyes again, not even realising they were closed. She finds herself staring at the ceiling, and with a sigh of relief, Impa falls back onto her seat, mumbling how she’s too old for scares like this. After Zelda sits up, Impa finally chuckles, a grin slips through her lips and she shakes her head. “Did you see something?”

“I don’t know,” she whispers. She glances behind her, noticing the spirit now keeping an intense, protective eye on her, despite him not being able to do anything should something happen.

“You went into a bit of a frenzy,” Impa laughs softly. “Had I not known any better, I would have thought you were having a seizure of sorts.”

“Known better?”

She nods. “Visions, dear. All holders of the triforce are accustomed to them in one way or another. I think since you have more than just your piece, it’s a little more intense for you,” she hands her a hot cup. Zelda glances inside, suddenly aware of the vivid smell of a potion. It’s green – meant to revitalise. It was a short vision, when did she have the time to fetch a potion and make it _hot?_

“Do you have an idea of what it could be?” Impa leans back in her seat.

Zelda takes a drink and thinks for a moment, before shaking her head with a shrug. “A place heavy with magic, I can assume. But it’s not a house, necessarily, it’s – I felt like I was floating – wait,” she pauses, thinking harder now that some of her energy is returning to her. “I think I saw a fairy.”

Impa nods once, as if she’s confirming a theory. She turns back to the princess, chuckling again at her apparent confusion. “Tell me again, princess, how no _Hylian_ can know the location of the Legendary Sword?”

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me for taking a while on this fic, I just finished moving back to university and I’m trying to make sure this fic is perfect. It’s also extremely difficult to write fics that are slower and not as to-the-point as the other ones I’ve written, so I’m struggling with that. I’m trying to make it entertaining to read while take its time at the same time. But anyways! I’m rambling. Thank you so much for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it!  
> -Elena


	3. The Hekana Mines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS FOR: Violence, language  
> SONGS USED TO GET IN THE MOOD: I went outside of my dorm into the courtyard, and I just kinda sat under a tree for a while and listened to nature. And, when I was inside, I listened to my playlist that’s still developing! Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/user/twijill/playlist/33ePVuep0TDgKbxHKZJf9u?si=MlQzimyiS9KbfIgi8w613A  
> So, I finally beat Breath of the Wild! I was working on getting all the memories and the shrines and that took absolutely forever. Needless to say, it gave me such an epic image in my head to how this fic is going to end, and I’m shook. I’m currently working on the DLCs and I finished binging Inuyasha and it’s giving me tons of inspiration for this fic, so I hope it starts to give similar feelings! Also, it’s been 20 years since Ocarina of Time?? Holy shit??? I feel old as hell. But anyways! My Zelda fic tumblr is minuetofthewild and my personal tumblr is elenastidham. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!  
> -Elena

Zelda can remember being as young as three and dreaming about a world full of fairies. There’s something mystical about them, something so incredibly enchanting. In an odd, almost familiar kind of way, Link has a similar energy to fairies. A fairy boy, she thinks. For some reason, it fits.

Perhaps, this fairy boy is the reason why she immediately assumes the magic in her dream was specifically _fairy_ magic, despite having never seen a fairy before.

She stays in Kakariko for the rest of the night, but she feels that she’s wasting time. The way she sees it, Zelda could already be finding a fairy, therefore finding the location of the triforce, but instead she’s in a warm bed by candlelight and an elixir of purifying water. Impa’s orders.

Link hasn’t spoken a word since her vision, an odd aura about him suddenly emitting from the boy’s face. She wants to ask, of course, but as before, he’s avoiding any kind of verbal contact. He’s folding his arms and leaning against the wall, pressing himself into the corner as if it would make him shrink in size.

She tosses and turns for perhaps five minutes when she feels the eyes on her grow more intense.

Zelda sits up with a huff, making eye contact with the spirit yet again before she finally decides to confront him. “Is there any particular reason why you’re acting strange?”

Link shrugs.

“Is there any particular reason why you’re suddenly silent again?”

This time, Link gives no hint of an answer.

Zelda groans softly, her hand squeezing the back of her neck to relieve some tension with her eyes trailing along the wooden floor and watching the candleflame flickering bright. The wind outside picks up some, but it almost feels like it’s trying to avoid her.

Finally, Link speaks, the smallness in his voice echoing and bouncing off the cobblestone walls. “You scared me to death.”

Her eyes turn back.

“Back there,” he says, almost strained. He senses his chest tightening, despite not being able to physically feel anything. He purses his lips together, losing his voice again but he remembers a way he has spoken to her before, not needing to rely on the lump in his throat. _I couldn’t see you,_ he signs. _There was something in your eyes that wasn’t – it wasn’t you._

Zelda tries to piece together what he means. “I was there.”

Link shakes his head. _It was almost like an ancient version of you. I could see traces, but that was it. You weren’t there._

“Impa said all holders of the triforce had these visions at least once. You must have, too.” Granted, she doesn’t remember a seizure or any other kind of insane behaviour from him, but she has only known him for a week or so, too.

_I haven’t._

Suddenly she remembers the faint sensation of metal pointed directly at her neck. She remembers how she stared into his eyes, seeing that he’s hardly there. She doesn’t know what happened beforehand, but she remembers that _he wasn’t there._

“As a matter of fact, you have,” she says, bringing her fingers up and absentmindedly running them across her throat. She doesn’t notice that he sees, she doesn’t notice that he suddenly _knows._ “I just don’t know why mine was so extreme.”

This time, Link is silent even longer.

Zelda lets him have his silence, before he breaks it again with a simple answer. He speaks in that brief second between perfect timing and too long to be relevant. “You have more of the entire triforce,” he says.

She glances down at her hand again, her skin outlined with gold that’s almost glowing, now. It isn’t exactly, but it’s not dulled like it used to be. It made sense now that he’s worded it that way, and she huffs out at the fact she didn’t come to that conclusion herself. 

She thinks on it for a moment, then she nods. She almost wants to apologise for scaring him, but then decides that it’s best to leave the subject alone now that it’s off his chest. She decides it’s probably better to just change the subject altogether.

“By any chance,” she thinks, loud enough for Link to perk his ears. “Do you have an idea of where we should be headed?”

“Were you just going to walk out there, while it’s like this, and have no idea where you’re going?” Link sounds confused, almost dumbfounded.

Zelda shrugs. “I know where I’m _supposed_ to go, it’s just a matter of finding out how to get there.” She can hear him mumbling something that sounds almost like a plea to Hylia herself. She glares through the spirit. “What?”

“For someone with the Triforce of _Wisdom_ ,” Link says, dripping with sarcasm. He doesn’t even need to finish for her to know what he’s saying.

“Not helping.”

Link groans, dragging his hands across his face before he just decides to drop it. It won’t help them to bicker about trivial things, it would get in the way of their quest. He takes a deep, long breath. “The Realm of Fairies?” he asks for confirmation. When she nods, he, thinks, then continues. “I mean, we can check back at Hekana.”

“Hekana Village has a lunatic, she doesn’t count,” Zelda tries to rationalise, before Link cuts her off.

“No, the Hekana _Mines,_ ” he says. He backtracks. “Sure, it’s a coal mine, but rumour has it that sometimes a miner will come across a fairy quartz instead. It’s said that these crystals are a means of direct communication with the Great Fairy herself.”

“So, you’re wanting me to go down into coal mines based on…a rumour?” Zelda seems bereft at the thought. She has never been anywhere like a mine before in her life, and there’s almost a hint of disgust in her voice.

Link just shrugs. “It’s better than _finding out how to get there,_ ” he mocks lightly.

“You know what I like it better when you don’t talk,” Zelda scoffs. He lets out a small chuckle, and she sighs in response. “But I suppose it’s better than nothing.”

Link almost wants to make a comment about her pride but decides to not say anything, just so his slight smirk is justified.

They wait in silence for just some time longer, before finally he brings something up. “I think I know why you can see me.” She glances up, eyebrows raised. He raises his hand, showing her the back, where one whole Triforce of Courage lays. “I have the whole piece.”

It takes Zelda a moment to understand what he means by that, and instantly she remembers who has the other. “So, are you with the Fierce Deity as well?” she asks.

Link shakes his head. “He’s done a very fine job of blocking me out. I can only see faint glimpses from time to time.”

“Can he see what you’re seeing?” She asks.

“Can you?”

Zelda pauses, then shakes her head, answering her own question by answering his. It makes her wonder what Link is capable of, then, if his only limit is where portions of triforce is being carried. Then again, from what they know, he’s capable of _nothing._

She sighs and lies back down, staring up at the ceiling. In a way, she almost feels like she’s floating amongst the seams as if it were made of water carrying the stars. She feels a shift in energy, and when she turns her head Link is suddenly standing next to her, staring at the candleflame. His eyes are focused. Debating.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t touch anything. It’s why I can’t join you on Epona. But I’m starting to wonder,” he reaches towards the flame then pauses, thinking, brows furred together. He waits for a moment, then he shakes his head and turns back to her. “Get some sleep. I’ll update you in the morning.”

Her eyes trail from him until they close for the night.

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

She dreams of a fire staring into the bluest eyes. Time stands still and there’s no smile. The world is coated in an ashy white, as if the end of the world had fallen before the light of day. It almost seems like she’s standing on the sky.

Zelda’s holding something – an instrument of sorts – deep blue with a metallic band wrapped around the mouthpiece, the triforce artfully etched into the side.

She sees Link right in front of her, but it’s not the Link she knows; he carries his eyes with the weight of a hero, shrouded in an ancient garb of green. These aren’t the same Hero’s Clothes on display in Hyrule Castle. They are, instead, a different form of the same breed. An alternative, perhaps, something almost alive with its own core.

Not even then does she know the frustrated horrors of switching between two ages within three days’ time.

Despite this, she does what she needs – what she feels is the best call to action for Link; what she understands may do both harm and good, what she can’t bring herself to say.

There’s a tune she’s heard once in fragments, a melody that she can practically breathe through what it sings. She brings the mouthpiece to her lips, and breathes to sing it again, and in a blue beam of light, the knight before her is floated away.

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

When Zelda opens her eyes again, Link’s sitting right by her facing the door. It’s almost as if he’s watching it, but also watching her – on guard, but with no possible way to give the enemy defeat. What light that manages to gleam through the curtains is bright, and from the angle alone she can tell that she slept in late.

She sits up, and that’s when he turns to face her. “Did you sleep alright, princess?” he asks. He looks refreshed, but it’s somehow clear that he hadn’t slept. Is it even possible for him to sleep?

She nods. The candle next to her is no longer lit. Her gaze tosses between the knight and the empty flame for a few seconds before she makes the connection. “Did you—?"

“—Yes.”

She nods once. “So, can you—?"

He shakes his head. Zelda looks at him, confused, and before she can open her mouth to speak, Link is already starting to explain, despite its difficulty. “I couldn’t touch it for a while,” he says. “But there was a moment that I almost could, if I focused on it hard enough.” He gestures to the general area where the empty white candle and princess stay. “I had to use a lot of energy and based on the fact it’s afternoon and you just woke up, I have a feeling of where the energy came from.”

Their shared triforce is a little more prominent in daylight.

“Does that mean the Fierce Deity tires from it as well?” Zelda asks.

Link thinks for a moment. “What little I’ve seen from him today hasn’t suggested that.” He takes a deep breath then tilts his head towards her. “Are you well enough to go to Hekana today?”

She nods simply, starting to push the blanket off her body as she speaks. “I just need to get something to eat,” she says. “We’ll make it there before it’s even nighttime.”

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

It’s nearing dusk by the time Hekana crawls up into their view. By this point, word about what happened at the castle had _definitely_ spread to here. Gossip mongers try to speak to her, but Link tells her to continue past the entrance and follow the path to where the mines will be, and so she does. She doesn’t say anything. In time, she’ll become used to speaking with silence.

The entrance to the Hekana Mines looks eerily like a hollow mouth opened wide, about to swallow her whole once she walks into the dark cavern. Two steps in and she notices that it’s significantly colder, her breath now lightly visible in the air.

“That’s not normal,” Link comments quietly, his voice uneasy.

“It’s not?” Zelda asks.

“Goddess, no,” he says. “It’s normally so hot in here that you can’t breathe.”

She glances at him. “Did you work in here?”

Link pauses for a moment, thinking, before he decides to shake his head. “I wouldn’t call it work since I never got paid. I was more of a volunteer from time to time; my father was the one working here.”

She looks back in, inhaling sharply at the tunnel that descended into darkness. She glances around, and takes the lantern hanging outside the opening and lights it, staring back at the pitch-black entrance. Despite a brief hesitation, Zelda begins to walk inside anyway.

Droplets of water slip from the top of the cavern, plopping onto the rocky ground below. There’s no cross breeze, just stagnant air hazing a slight fog throughout the tunnels. After a few breaths, Zelda has to bring up the shirt Impa insisted she’d be wearing and hold it over her mouth.

She walks on a straight along path, narrowing her eyes as if it would help her see, despite the dim lantern light. What comes into her vision makes her deduce a few things.

First: the miners had uprooted, dropping everything and running out on the spot, or something took them all away. Logic tells her it’s the former, but she wouldn’t put it past Ganondorf’s dark magic to reign havoc across everywhere in Hyrule. It could even be the Fierce Deity for all she knows.

Second: She can almost _feel_ a life source flowing through the veins of each tunnel, glowing like a beacon at the centre of it all.

She keeps hearing something. Something further along in the mines, something _breathing._ Something that can’t—

Zelda’s back aches as she’s slammed against the rocky walls. Her spine sends shocks throughout her body as the ever more present feeling of danger looms over her head. She looks up, quickly leaping to the side to avoid the wide jaws coming down onto her. It bites a chunk out of the rock that used to be what supported her shoulder, and in an instant instinct she’s running deeper into the tunnels.

“Zelda!” Link calls to her. “The dagger!”

“The what?”

She turns and has to hoist her hands into the air to shield herself from the blade piercing her lungs. The dagger stabs through her arm as the sheer force alone pushes her onto her back on the ground. Zelda screams, the dagger suddenly retreated and brought back down again, this time her hands grip onto the arm and pushes against it to keep herself alive.

She can hardly see two feet ahead of her with the torch, and she can’t seem to tell whether this thing trying to kill her is even human.

“Kick it!” Link shouts.

Zelda kicks without a second moment’s hesitation, taking its small moment of weakness to her advantage as she wrenches at the wrist. The dagger clinks to the stone ground beneath her, and she takes it, scrambling to her feet and grabbing her lantern.

She lifts it, and just as the flame is beside her eyes the creature turns to her, then screeches. She freezes stiff. It looks human, almost briefly, but the grey, depreciating skin and sunken features make it seem almost _undead._ Then her eyes trial up and notices the miner’s hat sitting atop his head.

Link notices at the same time. “Holy Hylia—”

She can’t move. Zelda tries to pull herself into a new direction, but she remains frozen in place as if her time was the only thing that stood still. The miner shuffles towards her, and just as it raises its hand to strike, she’s suddenly able to move again, and she leaps to the side.

Zelda fumbles to a stand, then sprints down the tunnel again, now with a dagger in her hand. The lantern dangling from her wrist burns her arm, the heat of the iron pressed against her skin leaves scorch marks that would likely go away in a couple of days. The light shakes, and as she’s sprinting it’s hard to find a focus.

She feels that energy from before again. It’s pulsing, like a heart. Like she’s running around in something _alive._

“How far along does these mines go?” Zelda asks, dipping around a corner and keeping up a fast pace to avoid any conflict around her. “Where’s the end?”

“This place drives into the mountains for miles,” Link says. “I don’t think they’ve finished it, so it leads to a dead end.”

Zelda slows to a complete stop and just gives him a look. If she maintains her face a little while longer, it would almost seem as if she’s completely enraged. “You mean to tell me that there’s no way out?”

Link purses his lips together. He didn’t exactly think this through.

“The moment you’re back in your body I’m going to physically rip you in half!” Zelda practically explodes. “How could you be so _stupid?_ ”

“Well, _excuse me,_ princess—”

The spirit isn’t allowed to finish, as the energy emits out a shockwave, bouncing off the princess in particular. She hears the screams of the redeads she ran past just moments before. This thing is giving her away.

“Excuse me later,” Zelda begins her steps backwards, watching the shadows in the distance grow darker against the amber lights. “We need to find another way out.”

Link pauses for a moment, watching in a slight tinge of horror at his own helplessness. His only use is to be a thinker. Strategize. As if he carries the Triforce of Wisdom itself. “We can follow the source,” he thinks out loud. “There may be something there that’s controlling all them. If we were to stop it…”

Zelda starts running before he can finish. At this point, she can’t think of any better option. She has no idea how to fight. Armed only her bow, a dagger, and a pot lid for a shield, the princess counts her arrows. Five. She counts in her elixir of purifying water Impa had forcefully attached to her side. She has _no idea how to fight._

She swallows hard, slowing down her run, but keeping herself moving. The redead miners are fast while attacking, but still not walking at a pace faster than a morning stroll. She tries to catch her breath through her nose, before she gives in to the extra space by catching her breath through her mouth. Her eyes trail down to the dagger.

“Link,” she breathes. “Please, tell me what to do when I fight.”

“Were you not trained?” he asks.

Zelda shakes her head. “I’m adept with a bow and arrow. There’s typically guards by my side.”

Link takes a deep breath, holding for a moment before he quickly exhales. He nods. “I’ll do the best I can. Just don’t die.”

“No promises.”

The energy pulsing from the dark ends of each tunnel is growing stronger with each step in its general direction. Link isn’t able to feel anything, but as she grows closer Zelda has to practically start forcing her steps. The energy is practically overwhelming her, pressing down on her chest and flooding her senses from every direction.

She continues forward, and just as she’s about to quit and try to find some other way out, she hears a faint tingling sound from down the tunnel; the sound echoes and bounces down the stone walls. It sounds almost like the faint tinkering of bells, a tiny light glistening way at the distance.

There it is.

Zelda gulps, but watches her step as she travels onward towards the light. The passageway is open, and just as she wanders inside, it almost seems as if a sudden avalanche boards up the opening so she can’t wander back outside. The room is large and circular, with a tiny fairy hovering just in the centre. A miner lays across by her side, skin greying.

“My, my, dear hero, you’ve certainly chosen to take long enough,” the fairy turns back to face the princess, then makes a face at who she’s seeing. “Princess of Hyrule, you are not the Hero of Time’s reincarnate.”

Zelda raises an eyebrow. “I just need to find a way to the Great Fairy. If there is no way, fine, just tell me a way to get out of here without having to go past by those—” she gestures outside the broken stone walls where the redeads resign.

“They’re wonderful, are they not?” The fairy gleams. By the looks of her, it’s easy to see that she once was a lot more lively and beautiful, but somehow had fallen victim to dark magic. Her skin looks as if she’s made of cracked porcelain, with each proof of shatter running a deep shade of black in colour. Her eyes match in this way. Her wings, showing remnants of once a shade of translucent pink, now carry smoke and ashy shades of grey. The Dark Fairy brings up her arm, watching the miner beneath her side rise as if he were attached by a string. “This one was the one that cracked open the coal that held me.”

“What happened to you?” Zelda gasps softly. “What did you do to them?”

The Dark Fairy shrugs. “I remember not. I am just a messenger. My only purpose inside these tunnels and mines were to find the New Hero of Time and destroy him before he makes it any further. He is supposed to come in shades of green.”

Zelda, very simply, is wearing blue.

“That’s perfect, then,” she says, sounding as if she’s slipping on ice. “Just show me how to get to the Great Fairy. I’m sure you’re aware of the way.”

The Dark Fairy holds her place, eyeing the girl, until she notices a specific aura pouring like an open wounding. There’re hints of this New Hero of Time, the Triforce of Courage holding her with a faint mist behind her eyes. “On second thought,” the fairy grins, turning to face her. “You’ll do just fine.”

She swipes her hand in Zelda’s direction, forcing the redead to cry and pounce, ready to kill her. Zelda leaps to the side, scrambling for her dagger and calling out for the real hero by name. “Help me here,” she breathes.

“Okay,” Links voice comes from behind her, like a teacher guiding the student’s arms during instruction. “This is going to be difficult. Your target is small and hard to catch.” He pauses, glancing around and unable to find anything that could be of extra use against her. “Just avoid the miner. She’s the one controlling him. If you can kill her, he’ll just…die again.”

Zelda never realised that she’s going to have to kill. She swallowed hard, not even sure if she can bring herself to do it. But just as she’s about to take a step towards the fairy, a horrible screech holds her still again. She can see just out of the corner of her eye that in her moments not moving, the redead had already caught back up with her.

_Damn it all—_

The miner shuffles behind her, then latches himself onto her back. With a squeeze, he bites down on her shoulder. Unable to scream or move, she struggles against the forces holding her still, until she’s able to grab her dagger and yank her arms backwards, stabbing him off of her.

Zelda stumbles forward, her entire shoulder burning as it bled. Her breathing shakes with her hand rising to the wound. She clutches, then notices how – despite a dagger directly into the brain – the miner rises once again. She turns, noticing the fairy raising her hand. It’s not going to die unless she does.

A dagger short, she reaches for her bow and an arrow, hoping that despite the small target she’d be able to do something about it. This time, she makes sure to keep herself wandering around the circle to avoid the redead following her in motion. She pauses still, then aims. The Dark Fairy just laughs.

“That’s cute.”

Zelda aims up, so when the fairy leaps up, thinking she’s avoiding the arrow, she actually flies right into its direct line of sight. The arrow rips through her wing, causing her to plummet down to the stone floor with a loud screech.

Her screech as well holds the princess still.

The Dark Fairy fumbles up to her feet, now incredibly small in comparison. Even so, her magic makes up for her lack of height. She glides her hands towards Zelda, the redead flying with her arms. The miner rips the dagger from his eye, raising his arm.

It’s right then when Link notices a moment of clarity against the fit of panic. Within his vision it seems only one thing comes to crystal clear focus: the elixir dangling from Zelda’s side. He glances back at the fairy, noticing a ring around the hold in her wing. It’s tinged pink, as it clearly was before. Zelda’s arrows are purified.

The Dark Fairy doesn’t have to die.

Just as the miner strikes his hand down, Zelda is able to move once again. She brings up her arms in front of her face to protect the eyes where he aimed, and she’s barely able to stop her own dagger from killing her. Granted, it cost a horrific stab in her arm, but despite her screaming as she stumbled back, she’s alive.

“Zelda,” Link calls to her. She glances in his direction, and he points to her elixir. “The fairy can be purified!”

In that moment, she sees what he had realised. She reaches to her side, wiping the blood off her hands onto her cloak so she can grab the glass bottle without it slipping from her grasp. She takes it, then runs towards the fairy.

“You honestly think a little bit of holy water can stop me, princess?” The Dark Fairy cackles, her arm once again starting to rise. She brings her hand towards her chest, and the redead comes flying.

Zelda barely manages to miss it with a quick duck, but the fairy continues to try and bring him back around. She _cannot_ miss this.

She pulls the cork from the bottle with a loud pop. She slides to the side to avoid the redead one last time, but loses her footing, tripping over herself and collapsing to the ground, the bottle flying out of her hands and crashing onto the ground.

“ _No_!” Zelda cries.

The water bounces off the floor with a splash, seeping on each side and the Dark Fairy just giggles as she steps around it.

Link watches, absolutely distraught, until he remembers the night before and the candleflame. He looks down at his hands, then on the ground. It seems light enough. It seems possible. He falls down to his knees, then rakes his hand along the side of the ground. He pulls from any energy he can; Zelda in this moment is suddenly too weak to stand. Just as his hand comes to the water, it’s enough to make a wave, and he throws what he can.

All it took was a drop to fall on the Dark Fairy’s face. She screams, holding her hands above her eyes before she too, falls to the ground, but this time, into the small puddle of water against the stone. It’s all she needs.

With a bright, burning light and a piercing scream, the redead drops back to the ground. Link pushes himself backwards, sitting on his bottom and palms as he pants, watching at the beams of light emitting from the fairy. Zelda is finally able to move, however groggy.

“Are you okay?” Link asks, softly. She manages to nod, pushing herself up onto knees, breathing heavy as if the slightest movement is now an effort to her. He sighs. “Sorry.”

Zelda shakes her head, watching the light burst and then only silence echoes off the stone walls. There is a moment, but finally, a pink ball of light emerges from the dark floors, a being suddenly so pure that it’s practically impossible to see beyond the light.

“Princess of Hyrule,” she speaks now, her voice ringing like bells. Her voice is much softer now. Easier on the mind. “You saved me from Evil’s rule. How can I ever thank you?”

Zelda suddenly remembers that she did not see the alleged new Hero of Time. Link is still completely invisible to the world. She glances at him, and he just shrugs. She turns back to the good fairy. “I’d like to see the Great Fairy, please.”

The light glows, as if the being is smiling. She raises her arms, then lowers them down, bringing with her a small container in the shape of a heart. “I will take you there, but you need to be in good health. Please, crush that heart piece.”

She raises an eyebrow for a moment, but then Zelda just leans forward and takes the heart container in her hand. It’s no larger than her palm, but still she crushes it anyways. Suddenly, a red mist bursts with a hint of light, surrounding the princess in circles before it floods into her chest. She feels a surge of energy, and just as she stands, the burning on her shoulder is gone. Her eyes trail towards it, and notices all her wounds are completely gone.

The fairy just flies in a circle, making a small blue ring on the floor, before she hovers off to the side, inviting them first.

Zelda steps here, and in a glowing beam of blue light, she closes her eyes. She doesn’t open them again until the beaming stops, until she finds herself on the other side of this portal – until she opens her eyes in the Realm of Fairies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus. This took me longer than a month to build inspiration for and finish. I apologise for the shitty fight scenes, but I hope this is something I improve on as I go! Anyways. I’m so sorry that it took way too long, I hope to be more consistent. With that in mind I’ll be jumping between a lot of fics I’m working on and have in mind, so please be patient with me at the same time. Fingers crossed everything works out! Writing is very hard and stressful when it’s not being fun. But still, I’m glad you chose to read my work, and I want to thank you for that. I hope you enjoyed it and the chapters to come.   
> -Elena


	4. The Healer's Charm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS FOR: Language
> 
> SONGS USED TO GET IN THE MOOD: I listened to my playlist that’s still developing: https://open.spotify.com/user/twijill/playlist/33ePVuep0TDgKbxHKZJf9u?si=MlQzimyiS9KbfIgi8w613A
> 
> PLEASE LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK BY CHENYSIN ON TUMBLR THANK YOU OMG. http://chenysin.tumblr.com/post/178464559613/last-commission-of-last-batch-wheew-this-one-was IT’S LITERALLY THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN AND I LOVE IT OKAY OKAY I’M DONE PLEASE ENJOY THE FIC!! 
> 
> Also, Merry Christmas!!! I hope you guys are having a great one. If you’re interested in getting early access to my work, check out my Tumblr!! You’ll find more information about that there. My Zelda fic tumblr is minuetofthewild and my personal tumblr is elenastidham!! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!  
> -Elena

It’s hard to describe floating while on land. It’s an odd kind of sensation – similar to that of swallowing liquid gold – the same kind of feeling just before sleeping: hovering, but also falling. All at once.

At first, it seems like these boundaries were endless, but as Zelda’s eyes come to focus, the walls actually glisten with crystals. Some edges poke out from the sides, and the air starts to seep with a smoke blended between pink and faint amounts of purple.

There’s no floor beneath her feet, just endless amounts of sky – or water – but she’s standing normally, all while feeling like she’s floating in mid-air. Is this kind of life normal for fairies?

Her wide eyes trail around, filled with wonder, until the very laugh she heard before in Hekana Village brings her glance back around.

The Great Fairy is large – very large – and despite her stick-thin physique she looks as though she could crush a grown man between her fingers with ease. A deep, purple smoke emits from her body, almost as if her dress is producing the beams. The dress itself looks to be thousands of layers, shades of purple and pink intertwining with clear crystals and split in the back for her wings. These wings look as if they’re made of crystals themselves. When their eyes meet, the first thing Zelda notices is the Eye of the Shiekah stencilled around her right eye, with the centre of the symbol only visible when she blinks.

 _“Fanadi?”_ Zelda gasps, in awe.

Fanadi laughs, loud and hard, before leaning in to look the princess in the eye. “Yes, dear?”

She stares, eyes wide for a short while before she remembers that her voice works. She swallows hard. “I…I thought you were Shiekah,” she points at her own eye, mirroring Fanadi’s. “I didn’t know you were—”

“—You thought right, princess,” the fairy interrupts, closing one eye to complete the Shiekah tattoo. She taps on her temple by the tattoo twice. “I was. I just never belonged with them.” She opens her eye again. “I’m not pure-blooded, you see. It’s a bit tough to blend in when my calling is entirely on the other side.”

So, she’s entirely, incomprehensibly: dangerous.

“You saved my daughter,” Fanadi says simply, gesturing back to the fairy from the mines before. “Cotera and I are forever in your debt.”

The fairy flew over to her mother’s side, hovering only lightly. “My sisters and I will always aid you in your time of need, princess.” In comparison to her mother, her voice rings like a thousand silver bells. In the Realm of Fairies her outfit is a lot clearer. She took the time to hold her hair up high, placing individual crystals along her face and chest with two shards practically protruding from behind her left ear. Shades of white and yellow wrap around her body and the pink smoke from before has diffused into a light grey.

It seems a lot more like they’re underwater, now. Yet Zelda breathes just fine.

“Back in Hekana,” Zelda steps forward, suddenly focused. “Did you know that I would go into the mines?”

“I saw it happening across many Timelines,” Fanadi coos. “I am just lucky to be living in the timeline I wanted to see.”

“So, do you know what happens to me – to _us_ – next?” Zelda asks, remembering suddenly that the whole reason she is on this journey is to save her royal guard so that he can defeat Ganondorf. “If you could truly see Time—”

“—Are you doubting me, Princess?”

The princess pauses, catching herself before swallowing hard. “There is no doubt in my tone here,” she says. She readjusts herself, standing straighter and holding her nose higher. “I just want to know how to win.”

The Great Fairy just sighs. They both know she won’t do that.

“Let me rephrase,” Zelda speaks. “What can I do that puts me in the directions I need to go?” She looks at Fanadi in the eyes. “Surely, there is a pattern I can follow that may guide me to succeed.”

Fanadi takes a deep breath, then rests her head on her hand’s backside. She ponders, only for a moment, before she remembers what she _can_ say. “Well,” she breathes in relief. “There is something. But it depends on your answer.” She thinks one more time. “In this Timeline, what are you looking for?” Her voice falls. “What is it that you want?”

It doesn’t take Zelda long to recollect, to reflect, to remember why she came here in the first place. Something – someplace where no _Hylian_ has ever been able to find. “The legend speaks of a sword that seals away darkness. I want to find this sword.”

“For what purpose?”

It’s a question she hasn’t answered out loud but has known all along. It feels borderline unnatural to say in the open, but at the same time it’s as light as air. “To stop the Fierce Deity,” she says. She pauses, then adds one more point to compete. “To save Link.”

This is all the Great Fairy needs to grin. She snaps her fingers and a beam of light divides between the both of them – a light so bright that it forces the princess to turn away and hold a blink. The light dims, and she turns back, suddenly meeting a crumbled-up piece of paper that looks as though it’s wrapped around something. It hovers, before it starts to lean towards her arms.

It’s a bit heavier once Zelda takes it, and when she untangles the paper, she realises it’s a section of a map – with a pale pink crystal on the inside. She looks back up to Fanadi. “What is this?” she gestures to the crystal.

“That is what we call the Fairy’s Charm,” Fanadi says slowly, carefully, as if one misstep in her speech will trigger the end of the world. “There are seven more charms scattered all throughout Hyrule. The remaining pieces of the map are with them.” These words prompt Zelda to immediately glance down at the map and see if she can try and pinpoint it based on her knowledge of Hyrule alone. A single, large finger tucks under her chin and lifts her head back up to make eye contact. “It’s pointless. No map of Hyrule contains this region.”

“Where will the map lead me, then?” she asks.

“To the Lost Woods,” she believes. “To the Master Sword.”

So. The sword has a name.

Zelda lifts the crystal between her index finger and thumb and she lifts it up to the light. The pale pink colour on the inside almost moves like a mist. It almost looks alive.

“What is this for?” she asks, turning her eyes from the crystal to the fairy.

The Great Fairy shrugs with a smug grin. “I guess you’ll see if you find the sword there, Princess.” She waits for just a moment, before she remembers something. “Oh, and I almost forgot! The Earth Charm is the last one you will find. It can only be obtained after you find all six remaining pieces of the map.”

“I thought you said there were seven—”

“—Seven _Charms_ , Princess.” Fanadi corrects. “When it comes to the map, the only ones remaining are six.”

Zelda looks over the section of the map briefly again, then the crystal one more time, before she opens her pouch of rupees and places them inside. She will put them somewhere else once she returns to mortal ground, but for now they just needed somewhere. The Fairy’s Charm. The Earth Charm. But what comes in-between?

“Will you tell me all other charms that I’ll need?” Zelda asks. Fanadi goes to object, but then she rephrases. “You don’t have to tell me where they are! Just _what_ they are.”

The Great Fairy checks her Timelines. She can work with that. She nods, then speaks slowly. She repeats twice, just so the princess can remember. “You have The Fairy’s Charm. You know the Earth Charm comes last. In between, there are charms for Water, Fire, Air, Metal, Electricity, and Shadow.”

Zelda remembers this.

“And, if I may suggest, it would be easiest to find the Lost Woods after obtaining the Charm of Shadow.”

Zelda remembers this as well. The Earth comes last. The Shadow is second to last. She has the Fairy’s. Water. Fire. Air. Metal Electricity. _Where are they?_

“Princess Zelda,” Fanadi speaks finally, her body shifting upwards, as if she were on her knees now. She flicks her fingers, and suddenly Princess Zelda is hovering again, but this time it feels very clear that she’s floating. “I must return you to the Realm of Humans. I’ll place you to rest and when you wake, you’ll be back.”

She feels light, yet heavy, all at once. The smoke around her is growing dark and evermore present. Her eyelids start to sink.

“One more thing,” Fanadi’s voice grows more and more distant as she speaks. “I’m sending a piece of myself with you, and I pray that you never, _ever_ have to use it.”

 

\----------------------------▲----------------------------

 

When Zelda opens her eyes, she’s floating in water that lines right up to her chin, almost halfway submerging her ears. She sees clouds crawling across a blue sky. Trees prickle along the sides of her vision. She leans forward, the lower two thirds of her body submerging underwater as she looks around, taking note of where she’s been placed. It looks almost identical to where she had stopped with Epona a couple days ago. The only difference is this water is lukewarm in comparison to the ice cold it was earlier.

Then again, she was practically _burning_ earlier. Now, she just feels completely energised. _Alive_.

She pedals over to the side, taking a deep breath as she pushes herself above land and just sits there for a little while, watching the water trickle down her skin and drip off her hair. A tingling sound catches her attention and she turns to the source.

There’s a bottle strapped to her belt now, a small, pink glowing light inside. A tiny fairy, it seems. A piece of Fanadi. She smiles. She almost wants to let the being go, but a part of her feels that she will need it later, so she decides to stroke the glass softly. It’s a reassurance to the both of them.

“Well,” she hears the voice drawn with a stretch. “It’s nice being back on land.”

Zelda turns, her eyes suddenly meeting the companion that had been otherwise invisible the whole time. “Link,” she says softly. “There’s so much I have to tell you.”

He raises a hand, thinking for a moment before he shakes his head. “I…I don’t think you need to.”

She raises an eyebrow with a slight tilt in her head. “What do you mean?”

Link isn’t sure how to phrase it at first, but when the words come, it comes as natural as breathing. “I wasn’t there, but I was. I saw it all,” he brings a finger up to his temple and gestures there softly. “Through your eyes.”

“So, you can see what I’m seeing right now?”

He nods.

“I thought you couldn’t before.”

“I couldn’t.”

Zelda blinks. She pushes herself up to a stand and then gestures that he turns around. She looks down, then holds out her index and middle finger from her left hand. “What am I seeing right now?”

It takes him a moment where he has to think. It requires a moment, it seems – a delay. “Your hand,” he says quietly. “You’re holding out two fingers to the ground.”

She pulls in her index. Only one remains.

“Very mature, Your Highness.”

“Holy Hylia—” The Princess stops herself, a laugh caught in her throat stuck somewhere between shocked and genuinely humoured. She looks back up to Link, who takes this as an invitation to turn back and face her. “Why can you, now?”

He shrugs. “I just can.”

Zelda looks to the outline on her hand before she looks back up and then notices his hand is glowing some. It’s dim, as if he had used it but the power is dwindling back down. “Do you think that our bond through the Triforce of Courage is growing stronger?”

He shrugs again. It’s an idea.

“Does that mean I could possibly be able to see what you’re seeing?”

Link has to think on that one for a moment, before he decides to test this theory. “Close your eyes,” he instructs with a smooth voice. She does. He turns his head to the side, spotting a particular bird starting to fly off into the horizon. “What do I see right now?”

It takes Zelda a minute as well, a little longer than Link, in fact, but she eventually tells him the correct answer.

“Goddess Almighty,” Link sighs softly before he inhales sharply and tells her to open her eyes again. “Yes, you can.”

This information sits flat in the air for a moment, before suddenly they’re hit with the same realisation. If they can see through each other and have half – that means the other half probably, almost definitely, can see through his eyes too.

“Does he still block you out?” Zelda asks, her voice now coated with worry.

Link nods, then brings a fist up to his mouth while supporting his elbow on the palm of his hand. “I don’t know how he does it, but I’m sure I can find a way to block him out so he can’t see either.”

“But what about right now? What if he’s already on his way?”

Link shushes her harshly, thinking for a moment. Then he sighs. “We just have to stay moving. Have you thought about where the other charms might be?”

Oh, right. Charms. Map pieces. She can’t look at them, it seems. If the Fierce Deity could also see through Link, that means he’s indirectly seeing through her as well. Great. The last thing she needs is to police her own damn _vision._

“I don’t know, but they’re all elemental, mostly,” she thinks back on all the ones she needs to collect, then remembers electricity in particular. “Well, actually, there’s someone I know that actually has the capability of controlling lightning.”

Link’s ears perk up. “Where?”

It unmistakable. The dark skin and fierce warrior physique. There can only be one place where she works. “Gerudo Town,” Zelda says to him. “We need to go to Gerudo Town.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I’ve got a system for releasing these chapters! Since I’m working on a bunch of creative stuff (this fic and an FMA one are big ones that come to mind), it’s a bit difficult (especially since I’m working out a system where some of you will get early access, info to that is on my Tumblrs!), but I’m working it out! Thank you so much for your patience with me and I’m glad to hear that you’re liking the story :)  
> -Elena


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